How To Kill A Necromancer

They flew higher and soon were enveloped by dark clouds. The wind got rougher. Droplets of water rushed past them.

"Oh. It's raining," Jase noticed.

"This is too cold."

Leopold brought the gryphon closer to the tops of the trees and kept her head low to see through the clouds as they slowed their speed. Suddenly, Seraph bucked in the air and something whizzed by her cheek and disappeared into the fog.

"Ambush!" Leopold shouted.

She pulled back on her reins and Seraph’s wings spread out, stopping suddenly. Jase grabbed on tight and leaned close as something whizzed past his shoulder.

Jase looked down and saw a group of monsters, camouflaged in the mud and trees, surrounded by ruins. Goblins and orcs that had taken up camp in the stone buildings that stuck up out of the ground, their roofs rotted away and only the walls remained. One orc had a third and final spear, ready to throw it.

Leopold leaned over and tugged on Seraph’s collar. The gryphon righted itself enough to dive down towards the ground in a clearing between the ruins. They landed and Jase rolled off onto the ground, his harness getting tangled in the saddle. The fallen leaves provided a soft but muddy landing. The spear soared through the air and hit the ground between Jase and the gryphon. It screeched, rolling over and dragging Jase for a few yards before he untangled himself.

"Seraph! Return!" Leopold ordered.

Seraph leapt to her feet as Leopold landed next to Jase and tried to help him up. The monsters had reached them now, and Leopold's gryphon reared up as Jase scrambled back to avoid its talons. Leopold drew a sword from a sheath hidden under the saddle. “Stay behind me, Jase!” leopold ordered as the monsters attempted to circle around the ferocious gryphon guarding them.

Jase felt himself go stiff as Zendron forcefully took over his body. He pulled his sleeves back and summoned enough magic to cast that hit the nearest monster, leaving the monster’s flesh  withered and dark.

Jase screamed in pain as the force of Zendron’s necrotic magic ripped through his own body.

"Shut up, would you rather be pummeled by a monster?" Zendron hissed. They looked over and saw Leopold, fending off multiple monsters over the back of her gryphon. Zendron turned to run.

"Wait! She needs help! We can't just leave her!" Jase protested.

"We stay here and we’ll be trapped. I am NOT dying again."

Zendron hit another monster with a spell, clearing a way out. He started to run through the stone walls. Jase wanted to take over, but he wasn't experienced in magic to numb himself to the pain of the spells Zendron was casting. Zendron turned around a corner, to find themselves trapped by walls on each side.

"It's a dead end!"

A large orc blocked the way behind them, grinning at the thought of easy prey.

"I am not dying to some ugly, blobby monster!" Zendron put his arms up in front of him and cast a large, uncontrolled blast of dark magic.

Zendron fell to the ground, stunned by the rebounding energy. The monster was a pile of ash that melted away into the rain. "Heh... we did it..." Zendron panted, "So much for Leopold. Let's just hope no other monsters come this way."

There was no response.

Zendron weakly pushed himself up and skirted around the ruined wall. They had reached the edge of the ruins.

"Jase?" Zendron still got no response, "Oh, come on..."

He started to try and make his way out into the pine trees. The rain was still falling in a thick haze. A dark shadow approached from the sky and he fell back as Leopold's gryphon landed in front of him, the force of its wings knocking him down.

"You left me!" She shouted angrily. There was blood and tears streaking her face as the rain streamed down her hair and onto her torn jacket. “We should have fought together. Why did you run off? I thought they killed you. I thought you two died!”

Zendron scrambled to his feet. "Of course, I did! I’m better off taking care of myself than waiting to get skewered by some goblin with a spear."

Leopold growled, but extended her hand, "Come on. We need to get out of here."

“And go back? No! I’m getting over this mountain one way or another.”

“You’re such a selfish idiot, Zendron. I’m done with you. Let me talk to Jase,”

“Why? He didn't try to help you either.”

“You’re lying. Let me talk to him, or I’ll-”

"You'll WHAT?" Zendron interrupted, glaring defiantly. “He can't stop me, and neither can you.”

Seraph reared up and Zendron flinched, putting his arms above his head instinctively. When nothing happened, he looked up.

Leopold was staring down at him. A mixture of hot pain and cold fury on her face.

"How could you..." She jerked the reins of her gryphon and it took off, leaving Zendron alone at the edge of the ruins. He backed up into the shelter of a pine tree and slid down, curled up against it.

"Come on, Jase. Where were you? Now she's gone and stranded us here." He said, frustrated. He wrapped his arms around his knees to minimize the heat escaping from his body. "Why won't you answer..." he asked, despondent. He put his head down. "No magic either... We're going to freeze out here. I'm going to die... again..."

There was a long pause.

"No." Zendron opened his eyes, intensely green and determined. "I'm Zendron Vrax." he said. He ripped off the hem of Jase's coat and wrapped it around his hands to protect them. "And I'm going to be the greatest Necromancer that ever lived." Zendron stood up and glared up at the dark clouds, "and died.” He continued, “And I'm going to get over this stupid mountain, alive."

He started trudging through the mud, every step a chore to pull his feet forward in his exhausted state..

"Fuck everyone else. I didn't need them then, and I don't need them now. This was the plan all along, right? Get control of Jase’s body, hone its powers to do what I want, or throw it away and get a new one." he continued to say to himself, "Well, that's done." He slipped down a slope, coming to a halt a few yards lower than he was before and even more caked in mud. "Dammit! Fuck you, mountain!" He shouted angrily into the fog and rain.

Zendron peered through the falling haze and spotted more ruins by the mountain ahead, creating a talus cave. He headed towards it carefully, staying alert for any other monsters. The entrance to the cave was piled up with rotten planks and leaves.

“This must have been where those monsters lived.”

He dug the obstruction aside before jumping back in revulsion.

"Agh! It smells disgusting!" He looked back towards the mud he had just trudged through, "Fine. At least it's dry inside there."

Zendron stepped inside, trying not to gag, and took a look around. It wasn't much more than a pile of rocks with a makeshift door placed in front. He wanted to turn his nose up at literally everything, from the disintegrating mats, to the matted patches of hair on the floor, to the rusted and blood crusted weapons. He spotted a pile of rotten food and meat and groaned.

"Ugh, this must be what's stinking this place up."

He approached it and tried to make out the contents. Among the pile was a maggot-infested wolf hide. Beside it lay the lacerated corpse of a female faun; a dainty humanoid creature with the lower half of a deer.

"They must have dragged her body up from the forest." He noted. Zendron looked at it for a long while. Her brown fur had turned almost grey from decay, and her long hair was already thin and matted. "It would be a shame to let her go to waste though." he decided.

With some difficulty, Zendron cleared up the rotten food and threw it outside the front of the cave. He laid the faun in a cleared spot on the ground and packed pine branches around her to preserve the body, covering her with a moth-eaten flour sack. He stood up and tapped his chin thoughtfully.

"Hmm... Never had to do a resurrection in these conditions."

After struggling to create a light without the convenience of his magic, Zendron managed to get a fire burning in the cave. With the light, he continued to sort through the monster's things, throwing trash out the door and trying his best to organize the rest into what would be useful to him, and what would be needed to revive the corpse.

When the fire began to die out, he tried to push his way out into the storm and bring back in any branches he could. They were wet and putting them on the fire filled the cave with smoke, so instead, Zendron hung them up, and threw the wooden handles from the weapons onto the fire.

Eventually, Zendron scratched up a multitude of sigils and other rites using the collection of pine branches, bones, cloths, and metal from the weapons that he had scavenged. The rain seemed to steadily be decreasing. Zendron stretched and looked outside the door. Despite the clouds, the sky seemed to be a bit lighter.

"Shit. Is it really morning?" Zendron realized. He checked the fire to make sure it would still be smoldering and laid down on one of the beds. "Ugh… maybe all this mud will protect me from the inevitable bedbugs… how lucky for me." he mumbled sarcastically.